Auction.com, L.L.C., has expanded its hospitality business with the formation of a new division focused specifically on the sale of hotel properties.

Anthony Falor, managing director of Auction.com, will lead the new division. Falor is a 25-year hospitality veteran who specializes in acquisitions, development, franchising and hotel real estate transactions.

“All of us know that sales activity in the lodging industry is white-hot right now. You’ve got an interesting set of circumstances: sellers are looking to maximize pricing on their lodging assets, and at the same time, there is a growing audience of potential hotel buyers from far corners of the world and other commercial silos,” Falor told Commercial Property Executive. “Our platform uses a unique combination of big data and an incredibly extensive, far-reaching marketing program to bring more qualified buyers from around the world to every sale—potential buyers that a traditional sales process would never identify.”

Falor’s team includes hospitality specialists who were carefully selected for their expertise, knowledge and ability to serve the unique needs of the lodging industry’s buyers and sellers.

During the fourth quarter of 2014, Auction.com closed transactions on 26 hospitality properties and a total of 76 hotels for the entire year. These included full-service Holiday Inns, Marriott Courtyards, Hampton Inns and Suites, Country Inns by Carlson, Comfort Inns, Red Roof Inns, Best Westerns, Microtel Inns and other nationally recognized brands.

“In 2014, we saw a huge increase in the number of private owners looking to sell their lodging assets on our unique, technology-driven platform. In fact, this category increased 99 percent in the last year,” Falor added. “And, keep in mind, these assets are not associated with distressed sellers. These are market sellers and private owners selling everything from economy to full-service assets, and located across geographies in secondary to urban markets across the country.”

“We are able to bring buyers to the process that the broker could not otherwise identify,” Falor concluded. “In fact, in 2014, 72 percent of the winning bidders for commercial properties on Auction.com were unknown to the broker on the deal. It’s just amazing what technology, coupled with the data we collect, can bring to a sales process.”

In November, Colony American Finance purchased a $165 million portfolio of acquisition lines secured by single-family homes from Archetype Credit Opportunity Fund, L.P., a private money lender backed by the original investors in Auction.com. CAF then entered into a strategic partnership with Auction.com to continue providing financing to the Auction.com buyer base.